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previous: JOE Does the 59 bassman reissue sound a... -- 8/28/2000 2:10 AM

Re: reissue 59 bassman-any good?

8/31/2000 7:31 AM
nuke	Re: reissue 59 bassman-any good? Actually, the Reissue 59 Bassman can sound pretty good. Fender is shipping them now with Reissue Jensen alnico speakers and for better or worse, the Groove Tubes "red white or blue" tubes seem to be better matched and biased than what they've shipped in earlier incarnations. The solid state rectifier would be the first thing I'd change, then the other tubes, depending what they are. I'd also tweak the bias point a little cause it probably needs it. Having played real 4-holer and 2-holer's plenty of times, they don't sound exactly the same. A little tweaking seems to help the reissue along quite a bit. Out of the box, they tend to be kind of lifeless and harsh. The originals have a warmth and a tendency to be a bit wooly. Kendrick was doing a lot of output transformer swaps on the reissues, and it seemed to be a pretty popular mod. Transformers have a lot to do with tone, particularly when things are cranked up. Fender claims to have followed the original design, but since I've never unwound them and compared side by side, I don't know for sure. The rest of the differences are fairly minor in terms of parts and values.

8/31/2000 7:31 AM

nuke

Re: reissue 59 bassman-any good?

Actually, the Reissue 59 Bassman can sound pretty good. Fender is shipping them now with Reissue Jensen alnico speakers and for better or worse, the Groove Tubes "red white or blue" tubes seem to be better matched and biased than what they've shipped in earlier incarnations.

The solid state rectifier would be the first thing I'd change, then the other tubes, depending what they are. I'd also tweak the bias point a little cause it probably needs it.

Having played real 4-holer and 2-holer's plenty of times, they don't sound exactly the same. A little tweaking seems to help the reissue along quite a bit. Out of the box, they tend to be kind of lifeless and harsh. The originals have a warmth and a tendency to be a bit wooly.

Kendrick was doing a lot of output transformer swaps on the reissues, and it seemed to be a pretty popular mod. Transformers have a lot to do with tone, particularly when things are cranked up. Fender claims to have followed the original design, but since I've never unwound them and compared side by side, I don't know for sure.

The rest of the differences are fairly minor in terms of parts and values.